There are areas of the mouth, in particular the spaces between the teeth, that are not normally reached by brushing and as a result do not receive the benefit of therapeutic agents as are applied to the open surfaces of the teeth. As a result, dental floss is commonly used to augment dental hygiene so that by the mechanical action of the dental floss the interproximal surfaces of the teeth are cleaned.
Dental floss typically comprises wax or other polymer coated thread manufactured by applying hot coating to the thread. It is known to include therapeutic agents in dental floss for release from the floss to interproximal surfaces of the teeth by the action of flossing.
Oxygen generation is known to have germicidal activity in the mouth. In particular, it has long been known that certain compositions such as baking soda and hydrogen peroxide provide highly effective cleaning action on the teeth. Peroxides are known to release nacsent oxygen in the aqueous environment of the mouth and are recommended for brushing the teeth in order to attain the desired germicidal action on oral bacteria.
The application of therapeutic agents such as oxygen generating peroxides has heretofore not been possible in conventional dental floss because of decomposition of the peroxide at the elevated temperature of the wax coating in manufacture. Additionally, peroxide components cannot be added to dental floss by other known aqueous coating techniques because the peroxide component decomposes when exposed to water.